Choosing 100% cruelty free make up doesn’t mean you have to limit yourself when it comes to creating the perfect look. For every brand that puts ground up bug parts in their eyeshadows or tests their lipstick in the eyes of rabbits, there’s another that refuses to take part in these unnecessary practices. The best thing? These brands have products that are just as great, if not better, than mainstream brands.

First, a short lesson.
Generally the term “cruelty free” in the make up world, means not tested on animals. “Vegan”, when applied to cosmetics, means it doesn’t contain any animal products, such as: crushed up insects, honey, fur, etc. However this guide can be helpful even to people who do not follow a vegan lifestyle, since I’m sure there are omnivores out there who maybe just don’t want to slather dead bugs on their face. You don’t have to be a vegan to lust after beautiful vegan cosmetics!

Without further ado, I put together this quick little guide to help make it easier to find the best cruelty free make up.

I don’t frak around, and neither should you

Shopping for make up should be fun and easy. You shouldn’t have to do research to find out if a company’s products are tested on animals or strain your eyes reading ingredients lists. Why not instead choose companies that are upfront about their animal testing policy? Why not choose from one of the many fabulous companies that actually bother to label their vegan products “VEGAN”? My attitude is, if a company can’t be bothered to do this for me, they obviously don’t care that much about getting my money. And as for reading ingredients? Aw hell naw. I waste enough time reading ingredients on food, I’m not doing it when I go to shop for make up. Our time is too precious for that bullshit, and you know it.

This is not a dream.
There are companies who care. And they’re awesome. And below are my top three picks for cruelty free and/or vegan make up. These brands are way better than MAC, Anna Sui, or any other companies that are less honest about their practices.

Sugarpill is my favourite make up company. For years I was dying for some brightly coloured eyeshadows that were vegan and NOT just repackaged mica. Sugarpill finally answered my prayers, and then some. Run by the immensely talented Amy, a.k.a Shrinkle, Sugarpill features packaging that is as beautiful and inspiring as the products themselves, and offers some of the boldest and brightest eyeshadow colours on the market. Their prices seem high at first glance, but they so aren’t, considering the amount and quality of product you get. No matter how many times I order from them, I’m always amazed. The sparkle! The creaminess! How brightly they show up on my olive skin! Their shadows are a dream come true. The Sugarpill website is beautifully designed, easy to order from, and the vegan products are clearly labeled. I wish more brands were this considerate. All of their loose shadows are vegan and about half of their pressed ones are. That’s fine with me because I actually prefer loose shadows, but in case you were wondering, the vegan pressed shadows are Buttercupcake (yellow), Poison Plum (purple), Midori (green), and Afterparty (blue). [Edited to add: The Sugarpill pressed black and white eyeshadows (Taro and Bulletproof) are now vegan too!] My only beef with Sugarpill is that none of the 4 colour pallettes are 100% vegan – they all contain at least one non-vegan shade. Boo.

Fyrinnae’s website didn’t have any photos that I could steal so thank you to Ana from Lipsticks & Lightsabers for letting me using the above photo of this stunning a look she created with Fyrinnae products!

As far as I’m concerned, Fyrinnae raises the standard as far as what can be accomplished in the make up world, and everything they sell is vegan. If you can be bothered to look at only one brand on this list, choose Fyrinnae, because they are guaranteed to have something you want (or need!). Before I added their products to my collection, I had no idea how complex and layered eyeshadow colours could be. They even have ones that change colour depending on how close you are to a light source. The sheer variety of colours they have is amazing, and their prices just can not be beaten when you consider the quality of their cosmetics. In addition to eyeshadows, they also carry primers, blush, lip products, and bronzer. Perhaps most famously, though, they make an eyeshadow “glue” called Pixie Epoxy that is a must have for anyone who wears sparkly shadows. Applying just a tiny amount Pixie Epoxy over a primer will make your eyeshadow look foiled and fierce, not to mention it’ll keep your shadows looking great all day. I am so grateful for Fyrinnae and their commitment to bringing beautiful cruelty free make up into the world.

Generally I’m not that into upscale make up companies, but I have to give mad props to Urban Decay for being one of the leading brands in making vegan and cruelty free cosmetics widely available. They make it ridiculously easy to buy from them by having a convenient list of all their vegan products (their vegan products are also marked with a paw print on the website). The Urban Decay website boasts a massive variety of products, ranging from lipsticks, to glosses, eyeliners, nail polishes, brushes… you name it. Furthermore, if you don’t like loose shadows, UD has a good selection of vegan pressed eyeshadows, both matte and shimmers. Their make up can be found practically anywhere, from Sephora, to Macy’s, etc. So if you’re the kind of person that prefers to browse make up in person before buying it, or you have a phobia about shopping online, Urban Decay is your best bet. But be warned: their Eyeshadow Primer Potion is not vegan anymore (see below for an amazing alternative!).

But wait! There’s MORE!

These are brands that I’ve sampled and loved too. I’ve only tried a few of their products, but they’re worth checking out!

Eco Tools Brushes – I have the eye brushes, and I love them. I’ve heard mixed reviews for their face brushes though.

Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics: Everything OCC sells is vegan and cruelty free. I’ve tried their Lip Tars and they are 100% amazing. I can’t wait to own some myself.

Silk Naturals – They sell a vegan clone of the extremely popular NARS Orgasm blush that is a must have if you wear blush. It is really just like Orgasm, except better because it’s vegan. It goes with any skin tone, even if you have tan skin like mine. Check out the rest of their vegan section.

The following brands I haven’t personally tried, but I’ve heard lots of great things about! Also I’ve been known to drool over their product photos on a regular basis:

Beauty Without Cruelty – Everything they sell is vegan.Cozette – Professional Quality make up brushesMorgana Cryptoria – Not all their cosmetics are vegan, but those that are are clearly labeled. And they have a ton of vegan lipsticks in every shade imaginable!Shiro Cosmetics 100% Cruelty Free and Vegan. I’m dying to try their pastel eyeshadows! edited to add: I have bought from them now, and I loved them!

In closing.

As you can see, it’s easier than ever to beautify yourself without harming animals – no matter how rich or poor you are, and no matter what you look like. If you are really concerned with buying cruelty free make up and brushes – stick with companies that care enough to let you know that they are cruelty free. You deserve that much!

After visiting Pure Food and Wine during my trip to NYC while I was visiting my parents in the USA, I was dying to try another raw vegan restaurant. I love raw food, but my adventures in making it at home have been pretty limited, mostly because I don’t have a food dehydrator or the other equipment commonly used in raw food preparation (well, not yet anyway). Luckily, there’s a raw vegan place not far from my parents house: Rawbert’s Organic Garden in Beverly, Massachusetts!

It was snowing like a bastard outside that night, but amazingly they were still open. Everything on the menu looked delicious, but I was really intrigued when I saw that they had pizza. I’d been craving vegan pizza for a while, but I’m trying to hold off on the gluten lately (it makes me feel tired and generally cruddy). Luckily, raw food doesn’t generally have gluten in it, so I was good to go.

I ordered half a pepperoni pizza as an entree. Oh my freaking god. It was amazing! There was this little note in the menu that said something about it not being “your traditional comfort food”. Screw that. I found it a hell of a lot more “comforting” than some greasy pie from pizza hut or wherever. The sauce tasted similar to the one in Ani Phyo’s book, but the crust, I have no idea. I MUST figure out how to make it! The “cheese” was made of cashews and the “pepperonis” (portobello mushrooms) were SO good! I have no idea how they managed to make the mushrooms so meaty without cooking.

For dessert, I grabbed a few dark chocolate truffles on my way out. Sadly, I ate them before I got a chance to take a picture. I need to remember next time!

The only minor complaint I have is that our waitress was really inattentive, and spent most of the time we were eating gossiping loudly to the bloke who was preparing food. I can’t stand being subjected to people talking shit about others. It was really unprofessional, and was totally harshing my mellow, man.

Normally I wouldn’t bring it up, but bad service is common in a lot of vegan and independent restaurants/cafes and it causes their business to suffer, which ultimately leads to them going out of business. I want raw & vegan restaurants like Rawbert’s to be around forever! For that to happen, they need to have servers who are passionate about raw food and are sensitive to the needs of customers.

Overall though, I’m so happy I made the effort to go and I’m sure I’ll be stopping by A LOT next time I’m there. I love the atmosphere and the prices are a lot more reasonable than most places. Maybe they’ll open a Rawbert’s in London… I wish!

I’m not going to make some cheesy “best moments of 2010” post because they’re incredibly annoying, but my New Year’s Eve was spent with my BFFs – eating vegan pizza, drinking a can of FourLoko, and dancing to Lady Gaga and Britney and M.I.A.

This is my parents dog Ziggy, probably the world’s cutest dog. I named him after Ziggy Stardust.

Me hard at work making pizzas.

One of the vegan pizzas I made. Obviously, everyone started eating it before I got a chance to take a photo, hence it looking incomplete. I made “Isa Pizza” from Vegan With A Vengeance with a few little changes – I used Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free pizza crust mix for the crust, and I used the tofu ricotta recipe from Skinny Bitch instead of Isa’s. The Skinny Bitch ricotta recipe is WAY simpler than the one in VWAV but tastes just as good, and doesn’t contain nutritional yeast, which a lot of people hate the taste of (not me, though, I love it).

I drank the only can of Four Loko I had left from my trip to NYC. It was awesome but I’m sad I have no more. If you can get me another (caffeinated) can, email me!

For now, I leave you with this video of me dancing to “Hombre” from the party.

So far 2011 has been awesome, but I know it’s going to be the best year yet! I have so much planned and I can’t wait to share it with you guys. 😀

While visiting my parents in the US a couple weeks ago, my friend Lisa and I made an adventure to New York City to attend Sanrio’s 50th Anniversary Small Gift pop up shop tour because we are both gigantic Hello Kitty nerds. It also gave us the chance to visit a bunch of our friends in the city!

The Sanrio tour spanned over two days – Thursday 9th December and Friday. We arrived on Thursday but we didn’t really want to drag our stuff around, so instead we met up with our friend Carrie and went to hang out at Kunokuniya bookstore! I bought an issue of Zipper (fav Japanese magazine, easily!) and a soy pumpkin latte which was the size of a bowl, hahaha.

After our friend Chris met up with us, we went to some Korean chicken place with a bunch of friends. Naturally, there wasn’t much for me to eat, but the restaurant itself was totally rad, and they gave us free fleece hats after the meal!

Then we went to Chris and Carrie’s Brooklyn apartment, which I loved! I took this opportunity to take some quick outfit shots in the kitchen, which for a one bedroom apartment was pretty damn impressive.

I’m wearing a handmade blouse and an Innocent World top and Skirt. I’m so glad I decided not to sell this set because it fits so much better now that I’ve lost some weight.

Lisa looking so good in her Belldandy shirt!

The next morning, it was time for Small Gift. Sanrio’s touring pop up shop was basically a lunch truck, but instead of food they sold merchandise in celebration of Sanrio’s 50th anniversary. They gave out “menus” with a list of all the merchandise to choose from. The line was unexpectedly long, so we had to stand outside in the blistering cold for at least a half hour before we made it to the truck. I mean, seriously cold. I couldn’t feel my hands. It was exciting to see so much Hello Kitty stuff, but holy shit everything was really expensive! I was hesitant to get anything, given how poor I am, but after risking my life and sanity by having to stand in sub-zero temperatures for so long there was no way in hell I was going home empty handed. I got the hooded scarf since I’ve been wanting a fall/spring scarf for a while now.

They had this amazing HK smart car that I totally wanted to steal.

After that, we ran to the nearest heated indoor area, which happened to be Macy’s. I never realised before this that Macy’s in NYC is an ~experience~, unlike in Massachusetts where it’s just another cruddy department store. The NYC Macy’s was big, insane, and even had a cafeteria in it! So we sat down to have some lunch and warm up. It was way, way too crowded to do any shopping but they did have an Urban Decay display which I took the point to explore briefly.

This may seem redundant, but I felt the urge to go to the Times Square Sanrio store after this. So after asking my friends if it was ok, we all agreed to go. I was really wanting a pair of Hello Kitty mittens, but I ended up getting a really cute tackle box instead. I got it to store my make up in!

We were pretty close to the fashion district, and I was looking for some fabric for a few projects I was working on, so we headed there next. Carrie was nice enough to take us to all the fabric stores in the area.

We ended our fabric journey at a store called Mood that is apparently famous because of something about Project Runway… I’m not a Project Runway fan, I admit, so I couldn’t appreciate it in that way, but they had a huge and impressive stock! I did find one fabric I loved, but it was $15 a yard, so I sadly had to pass on it.

Later on, we went to a new friend’s house to watch Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (one of my favourite movies!) and play a Wii game called “Just Dance”. Carrie made sure to get photographic evidence of the party.

Saturday morning we were pretty tired, so we slept in a little and got a bit of a late start. The only thing on my to-do list for today was that I really wanted to go to Pure Food and Wine – an insanely famous raw vegan restaurant near Union Square, perhaps also known for spawning the book Raw Food Real World. I’ve tried making raw food myself many times with limited success (I don’t have a dehydrator, spiralizer, or a Vitamix so… yeah), thus I was eager to see how such a well known raw restaurant does it.

That smoky effect in the background is actually someone walking by our table

The restaurant was REALLY expensive, so in an effort to not kill my wallet, I didn’t get one of the main dishes. Instead I started with the huckleberry salad, which was topped with some orgasmic dressing and what I assume was cashew cheese. I’ve made raw cheez many times before, but the stuff on this salad was serious business. It looked and tasted like real, sliced parmesan or whatever type of cheese that’s supposed to go on salad. I’m not even a huge salad eater but it was so so soooo good!

For dessert, I followed up with pumpkin pie topped with ice cream. It was more like a pumpkin mousse than pie, but still delicious. Super smooth with just the right amount of sweetness.

After the food, I had this weird high feeling like I had just leveled up at life. I’ve heard of the light feeling you get after going raw, but never experienced it before this meal.

That night we went to a party at my friend Carolann’s house. I got pretty drunk, but managed to coordinate myself enough to take a cute picture with my BFFs.

The next day we had to leave. I really wanted to stay longer, but Lisa had work the next day and I had work that I had to get back to doing as well.

Thanks so so so sooo much to Carrie and Chris for letting us stay with them, and extra thanks to Carrie for taking so many of these pictures! I go back to England in less than a week and I’m going to miss everyone terribly.

Merry Christmas!

The holidays are everyone’s favourite time of the year because of presents, but for me, they are an excuse to wear fun and flamboyant holiday themed outfits. This year I made two outfits – one for the Christmas eve and one for Christmas day.

My dress I wore on Christmas eve is actually a replica I made of a JSK (jumperskirt) that Baby, the Stars Shine Bright released a while back. I fell in love with the JSK when I saw a girl wearing it in Gothic & Lolita(this picture to be exact) and I’ve been wanting it ever since. I was never able to find anyone selling the BtSSB one (and I doubt it would fit me anyways, hahaha) so I decided to make it myself when I found this really awesome red plaid fabric. It has metallic threads in it!

My Christmas day outfit is Dr. Girlfriend’s costume from The Venture Brothers christmas special. Some people cosplay at conventions or whatever, I cosplay on Christmas. 😛 This photo is actually from last year but I was way too tired to take new pics… Except a few quick shots I took of my make up. I’ve been trying to get Dr. Girlfriend’s make up just right lately:

Now onto things that are relevant to everyone’s interests: KITTY PHOTOS. I took these pics of my friend Jon’s roommate’s kitties, that seriously came out so adorable. Her cats constantly climb the christmas tree, and play with each other in it, which thankfully is fine since there’s no actual ornaments on the tree (it’s fake, the lights are built into it). They are such beautiful cats! I just want to hug them all the time when I’m with them.

Last month, my boyfriend and I went to London so I could go to M.I.A’s concert at the 02 Academy in Brixton and to visit with his parents.

The morning before the concert, I woke up (kind of) early to take pictures of some new aprons for my shop! We figured since Rob’s parents have a big back yard, it’d be perfect for taking pictures of them. Most of the time I have to struggle to take pictures in front of the windows of our apartment, and our garden is badly overgrown due to landlord neglect so I can’t really take any pictures back there. It was freezing out, but we still managed to get some great shots!

Later on, after a quick shower, I got dressed for the concert.

Unfortunately, I forgot my conditioner AND wide toothed comb at home, so my hair was frizzy as all hell, hence my sour face.

I had a lot of fun applying my make up though! Rob totally photobombed this picture, as he usually does.

M.I.A. Concert at the o2 Academy in Brixton

I took the tube from Barking to Brixton. My first job when I lived in London back in 2008 was located in Brixton, so it was incredibly weird and brought back a LOT of memories when I went back there!

For those of you unfamiliar with her, M.I.A (real name Maya Arulpragasam) is an alternative dance musician. You might know her song “Paper Planes”, because it was on some stoner movie’s soundtrack or something, but if you haven’t heard any of her OTHER music, I feel sorry for you!

Maya’s concert was not so much a concert as it was an insane party where the songs never stopped and the fans were a part of the show.

I actually showed up an hour and a half late on purpose because I didn’t know who the opening bands were and I’ll be honest, I don’t really like sitting through opening acts unless I know who they are. I guess that’s awful of me, being a musician and all, but having had terrible student bands forced on me at the o2 Academy in Bristol, I just didn’t really feel like it. Despite my efforts (hahaha), I ended up coming in halfway through Sleigh Bells’ set. They were ok, I can’t really comment on their music since it was hard to hear given the acoustics in the venue, and even harder to see them.

After they finished, I waited patiently with all her other fans for Maya to come onstage. Eventually, I spotted Maya on the side of the stage wearing her XXXO burqa!

Okay and I’m just going to comment on this real quick: I know people found her burqa “controversial” and “racist” (seriously?), but I don’t find it offensive. I have a feeling if certain other music stars had sported this outfit it would be “art”, but when Maya does it apparently it’s somehow bad. Whatever.

After standing on stage for a little while, Maya came close to the audience with a video camera and started filming us while a DJ on stage was spinning. I was really close to the front despite showing up late, so I managed to get really close to her!

The entire time she was walking back and forth across the audience, I was wondering why she was recording us. After what seemed like ages, she finally retreated. When the show started at last, I realised why: there was a huge screen on stage showing the footage that Maya had captured of the audience! It looked AMAZING and I managed to get a decent picture:

And yeah, my own face showed up there at one point. :’D

The first song she began with was the opening track from /\/\ /\ Y /\, “The Message” and I think she sang “Illygirl” briefly. When she showed up on stage, she was wearing a hoodie and a keffiyeh, so it was hard to see her. But once she launched into “Bucky Done Gun”, she took them off to reveal the most amazing outfit ever. It was a shiny, sparkly, and silvery pair of short shorts paired with a matching jacket and animal print leggings. And oh her eye make up!!! It was incredible, like Jem (of the Holograms fame), except blue. She also has short hair now, which I’ve never seen her with before, but looked great. I tried SO hard to get a picture of it, but she was moving around so much, that this was the best I could do.

But I did find this video on YouTube of her performing “Bamboo Banga” at the same show, where you can see it much better. I want to make an outfit like that!

She went on to play “World Town”, “Galang”, “Boyz” (during which the crowd went freaking crazy), “Fire Fire”, “Story to Be Told”, “Born Free”, and “It Takes a Muscle”. At some point, I think after Boyz, she and her back up dancers invited people in the audience to come on stage! I tried really hard to get on stage but I wasn’t standing close enough to the barrier.

I think the last song she played before the encore was “Born Free” (or “Steppin Up”?), but I’m not sure, I was still reeling from how insane the show was. When she came back on stage for the encore, I was praying she’d play “Hombre” since it’s my favorite song of hers, but given that it was not a single (which I still can’t believe!) I knew there was little hope.

During the encore she played “Space”, “Teqkilla”, “Illygirl” (in full this time), and ended with “Paper Planes”, of course. We all waited for her to come back for another encore, but after Paper Planes she was finished. For the first time since EVER, I actually had this feeling where I really didn’t want it to be over!

The only thing I found disappointing and surprising was that she didn’t play “XXXO”, which is the new single from her latest album, and probably the best track on /\/\ /\ Y /\ next to “Illygirl”. I think maybe she didn’t feel that it would be good live or something! But I really was waiting to hear it. Oh well!

I hope you all enjoyed the photos and let me know if you were there or at any of her other tour stops. I’d love to meet more people who recognise Maya’s genius! I’ll leave you with a video of my favourite song of hers, “Hombre”… which I’m still sad she didn’t play!

about adorpheus

I'm a musician and a cosplayer. I watch a lot of Star Trek and listen to a lot of Elliott Smith and eat a lot of chocolate. I mostly post about veganism, because being a vegan is pretty great. Sometimes I post about the other things I do. I was featured on MTV's True Life. Read more...